AZ Republic’s predictions omit “The Big One”

A few decades ago Sanford and Son was a popular TV comedy. When Fred Sanford, a cantankerous schemer, was caught in a ploy, he would often clutch his chest feigning a heart attack, look skyward and call out to his dead wife, “This is The Big One, Elizabeth! I’m coming to join ya honey.” This ongoing and anticipated satirical antic was a reliable laugh producer.

Unfortunately for the Arizona Republic, its repeated routines are neither funny nor able to retain old readers or capture new ones.

In an effort to fill space in the incredibly shrinking newspaper — which has morphed into a slim entertainment review, increasingly staffed by Cronkite student reporters — the New Year’s Day edition takes a stab at making predictions. There are nine. Accompanying the obligatory sports forecast most of the rest use Republican candidates as punching bags. In fact, the newspaper is not above stretching the truth when it cones to giving cover to John McCain, shamefully running for a sixth six-year term at age 80. If he’s elected and is able to function in office, he’d be closing in on staring 90 in the eye at the end of that term. Increasingly unpopular, he recently had trouble generating an audience for his kickoff announcement.

There was a time when the Republic endorsement list was clutched in the hands of voters standing in line at neighborhood polling places. Newcomers to the state will find it difficult to imagine that the publication was conservative in its previous incarnation. Today, an endorsement is likely to be the kiss of death for an issue or candidate.

Now there are few polling places since registering as a voter can be accomplished online and voting is increasingly done at the kitchen table with ballots mailed in. We are repeatedly told that voter fraud is non-existent, but the ease of registering and voting makes that a tough sell.

This Oct. 2012 Pew Research report details the sharp decline in newspaper readership, which has only worsened in the intervening years.

Reflections of a Newsosaurillustrates the plummeting advertising and the deep generational divide in newspaper readership. While 53% of the Boomer generation (those 55 and older) said they read print newspapers, only 22% of Millenials (ages 18-34) and 32% of Generation Xers (ages 35-54) read hard copy news. It’s a certainty these numbers have continued a downward spiral since the data was collected. Digital news distribution fares no better.

The Arizona Republic’s “Big One” on its prediction list is concealing the fact that it’s on life support. Employees have been pink-slipped and buyout options have allowed many older, higher paid staffers to take the money and run. The hard left newspaper is struggling to stay afloat, but continues to insult the very readers it needs to survive.

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5 Responses to AZ Republic’s predictions omit “The Big One”

Another factor in declining news consumption by younger Americans is the lack of interest in national or international events that shape our lives. They have been indoctrinated in government schools by unionist teachers to regard America as an imperial, over consuming nation that needs to be reigned in. When our oldest son was in grade school and came home telling us what a villainous nation we live in, my wife and I first spoke with the teacher, who actually told us that America is ‘imperfect on many fronts.” The principal was less forthright in her views, but it was not difficult to discern she followed the same thought pattern.

The next day we researched home schooling. All of our children have been home schooled, have tested high and are college graduates. The universities are obviously worse than the K-12 schools, but our children had the historical background to be able to withstand the leftist onslaught. They were obviously outnumbered by young liberals and radical teachers. Our experience should stand as a warning to parents who think all is well in the local school. It is not. Watch any of the man on the street interviews or those on university campuses to see the profound decline. Unless this is turned around very soon, America as we knew it will be lost forever.

This video stands as a stark reminder of the lack of education our kids get from grade school on up. Parents should be fighting mad, but most are content to think the school their precious child goes to is wonderful. Try talking to a teenager today. (If you can command their attention long enough to engage them in conversation.) Chances are they will be focused on their cell phone. Ask them about anything other than popular “culture,” and you’ll get a blank stare accompanied by a loopy grin. If we are to rely on them to secure the future of our country, we re doomed.

The Arizona Republic is struggling because it’s so far Left that people (except the far Left) don’t want to read that kind of stuff. It’s like watching the PBS show ‘Horizon’ with Ted Simons – uncomfortable, dry, droll and heavily weighted to the Left. All that with our tax money.

Here’s something to highlight the warm friendship between McCain and his “rock star” friend Hillary Clinton.

Have you ever won a drinking competition? | Quick Question | Hillary Clinton

That was our New Year’s Eve Post, but we didn’t have the video. It was included in the link we provided to The Hill. Thanks for providing it. We’re going to “lift” it from your comment and include it as a stand alone in our previous “chug-a-lug” post.

What thinking Arizonan will miss the Arizona Repulsive? Definitely not me! My wife and I haven’t subscribed for years. Initially we did miss the crossword puzzles but solved that by finding them online. There are also numerous, and various level of proficiency, crossword puzzle books available. You can find them wherever magazines are sold! Why support this leftwing rag?